How to improve your programming skills?

There are many people who get started by learning some programming language. They go through learning some different fundamental concepts from the programming language. To get better at programming, practice is one of the most essential things that someone would be required to do. But at times, it happens with many people that they take some problem to solve, and after some time, they are not even able to establish how they can solve it, and they end up giving up on that problem, and it demotivates and can create self-doubt on your learning, and your abilities.

This does not only apply to some students/people who are taking some programming classes, but to anybody learning programming from anywhere. The thing is that this issue can be serious, but with some simple solutions.

So, this is a question of many, how can we improve our programming skills, or how can we get better at programming? Here, we are going to discuss some things, that would help you improve your programming skills.

How to improve your programming skills?

First of all, not being able to solve some problem, or not being able to understand some concept may demotivate you, and start creating self-doubt in your learning. Do not let that happen to you. If you get stuck into some problem, know that there has to be some solution to it. Understand that if something seems difficult, it is not difficult, just we are not familiar with that. So, just be optimistic, and think of how can you do it.

What does it mean to improve programming skills?

Before even we move to understand how can we improve our programming skills, we need to understand what does it even mean to improve our programming skills? Because then we have an idea, of what we are required to do.

You need to ask a question to yourself, what does improving programming skills mean to you? It may be some of the following for you –

• Learn some advanced concepts.
• Establish logic for solving some problems.
• Understand the concepts in depth
• To be able to come up with efficient solutions to problems.

So, first of all, we need to understand what we mean when we say that – ‘I want to improve my programming skills. This will help us a lot to get to the solution. Anyways, now let’s get to some points, which can help you improve your programming skills.

Focus on the fundamentals

Whenever we learn some programming language, we should always focus on the fundamental concepts related to that programming language. For example, when some building is constructed, the foundation of that building is made very strong. If the foundation is not built properly, the building can experience serious problems. Similarly to this, if we do not have a strong grip on the fundamental concepts related to some programming language, we can get into problems later on.

So, get your fundamental concepts clear, and you would feel more confident about how things are done.

While solving problems, make sure that you are familiar with the concepts that are to be used –

Many times it may happen, that you might get stuck on some problem, and you are searching for the solution on the internet, or book, or anywhere. You get to the solution as well, but you are not even able to understand the solution as well. This can be because the problem is being solved using some concept, that you are not familiar with yet.

At times, this also may result in frustration, because we are not able to solve some problems, and even if we have the solution, we are not able to understand the solution. But this has a simple solution, and that is to learn the concept first, and then attempt the problem again. Also, try to attempt some similar questions or some other problems that are related to the concept.
Understand that – ‘Never let someone say that you cannot do it, even if that someone is you!’. If you are not able to do it today, it should not be the same tomorrow. If you know that you are not able to do it, look for how can you do it, and then do it.

Ask for help

Whenever you are stuck on some problem, you might try your best to come up with some solution to that problem. But, if you are spending much time working on some problem alone, it may result in some demotivation, since you would be spending much more time on some problem, searching for some solution, and if it takes much more time than expected, someone may also end giving up on that problem.

So, all you got to do is decide sometime, and within that time, if you are unable to come up with some solution, just ask for help. There might be many people in your friend circle, in your neighborhood, or in your society, who can help you out with the problem. Or you can even go to the internet for help. Maybe the solution is already there. Now, try to understand it.

Let’s say that you ask for help from someone, they would hopefully help you get the problem solved. Now, while they are solving the problem, you have to pay attention to the approach that they took to solve the problem. Pay attention to how they came up with a solution if they did. The same thing applies to some solutions that you are viewing on the internet. Try to understand their approach while they solved the problem.

Sometimes, you would literally say that – ‘It was so simple! How could I not think of it? I know about the concept, and still, I could not think of applying it over here.

So, the bottom – line is that do not spend much time working on some problem if you are not able to come up with some solution. Learn to ask for help, it would help you a lot.

Start from the simpler problems, and get to complex ones

When you decide to solve some problems, you should always start with simpler problems. If you are already familiar with solving some problem, still solve it again, and again. Then move to the complex ones gradually. Many people try to rush to the harder problems, not spending much time on the simpler problems, and later they get badly stuck, and sometimes, they end up not solving the problem.

Remember that you are not competing with anyone, but with yourself. So, do not rush to solve harder problems if you are not done with the easier ones.

Don’t just rely on theory, apply what you learn

Many times, it happens that many people just watch the tutorial related to some concept, or read the notes or article or the lesson, and think that ok, we are done with the concept, and move forward. But it is important to play with the concept a little bit. Try to solve some problems in which, that concept is used.

Spend some time on that concept, and also try to go through some additional resources, and do not just rely on one resource. You may learn something new about the concept, get some new direction of looking at that concept or just get a revision on that concept.

Learn to revisit the concept.

You should learn to revisit the concept. Whenever you are stuck on some problem, and you get to know that it is based on some concept that you are already done learning, just revisit that concept, and get it clear properly before you again go on solving some problems.

Many people, in a rush to solve problems, do not get the concept properly, or skip some concepts and directly get to solve some problems, which is not right when you are learning something. First of all, you should be enough familiar with the concept, so that you can solve some problems related to it.

Explore around you, and think in terms of problem-solving in your mind

Whenever we try to solve some problem, we tend to create a picture in our mind, about how are we
going to solve the problem, or what we are going to be our approach while solving the problem. So, even if you are not solving some problem right now, try to explore and think in terms of solving the problem, or try to think and explore how things work.

This will help you to stress your mind, on brainstorming and researching about the different things, and you would be able to think of how can you apply the concepts that you have learned, into some application.

Do some projects!

Whenever you are done learning some programming language, or you have got most of the concepts, you should be doing some different projects, so as to get a practical approach to creating something. Even if that project is very small, do it, because it does some impact. With the project, you get to know how can you use the concepts that you have learned, together, to create something useful. This helps you get a clearer picture of how to use the concepts in a practical way. Also, when doing some projects, go from the smaller ones to some complex ones.

Try competitive coding

To test and improve your skills, doing competitive coding can be a good practice. There are many platforms that you can use for competitive coding. Here, usually, you are given some problem statement, and you have to come up with some solution(not only a solution but an efficient solution). Here, you would understand writing codes, efficiently. Here, you would also have to take care of the time and space complexity of your code. This would be challenging at first, but this would help improve your programming skills and improve your logic.

Conclusion

Here, we discussed some points, which would help you improve your programming skills. Implementing these points, and exploring others, would surely help you get better at programming. Remember that you first should be concrete and honest about what you are learning. You should not just rush to solve problems. Also, you should not get demotivated, if you are not able to solve the problems, but be optimistic and search for how can I do it. Also, the above points would somehow help avoid many other problems.

You can explore some more things, and implement them in order to improve your programming skills. Remember to ask yourself, that what it means for you, to improve your programming skills, and it would be easy for you to come to a solution.

FAQ How to improve your programming skills